Naruto Uzumaki!
by Warlord1096
Summary: In the end, Naruto was never going to settle for a quiet death after a cushy term as Hokage. He was born to leave the world as he entered it, as a hero for the ages. And in doing so, he became immortal as legend. [An attempt to create alternate end to the manga with an actual resolution to the overarching plot of peace which ended up nowhere.] Title from Manga Chapters 1 and 700.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction.**

* * *

><p><strong>Naruto Uzumaki!<strong>

In the end, there's no happy ending for him. His right hand is gone, but so is the pain. He's beyond it now. He has ascended to something much, much greater.

It is lonely at the top.

"Y – you idiot!" Sakura's words seem hazy, distorted, like they're coming from the end of an impossibly long tunnel. Naruto's at peace now – he's kept the last of his promises, fulfilled the last of his obligations.

All there is left now is the future. Freedom. No prophecy, no reincarnation, no manipulations from the past to return to haunt him. There is only his free will.

He gets to his feet, ignoring Sakura's shrieks of protests. Sasuke, the bastard, has finally passed out. He smirks a bit – he was always superior in endurance, if nothing else.

The world blurs and tilts before he regains focus and straightens himself.

"I want to go back to the battlefield."

Sakura stops ranting to stare at him like he's grown a tail. He chuckles to himself at his little joke, no doubt not winning any points with the team medic.

"Naruto…"

"No. I _need_ to get back. Right now." They'll start moving if he's too late. He cannot be too late; the hero never is.

"Well, you two kept going for so long I built up enough chakra for a Kamui, I guess…"

"Kakashi-sensei, you can't be serious -!"

Kakashi catches his eyes. He knows that his teacher knows at that instant that there's something more going on.

"Come on, Sakura. Can't deny our hero, can we?"

Naruto smiles at this, content to let the words wash over him. Sasuke moans a bit in his sleep, and a bit of his heart shatters when he sees Sakura's eyes snap to him at once. But lately his heart's been confused, what with another kunoichi persistently niggling her way into Sakura's territory.

There's no time to dwell on it now.

Kakashi's chakra covers them – Naruto chokes a bit at the emotion that is hidden inside his teacher's careless facade. Protectiveness. Nostalgia. Happiness. Relief. _Love_.

All of it whirls together and all Naruto knows is _warmth_ for a second before he is standing on the gigantic wasteland, watching fellow ninja laugh and cry and just lie about, too exhausted to move. The Kiri-nin are enlisting people (and craters) to make some water for the army, but they are exhausted to do anything more, even hours after the end.

Naruto smiles. Even if it is transient, ephemeral, he is seeing Jiraiya's dream come true with his own eyes. He understands now.

He will have to apologize to Nagato.

A silence falls on the battlefield as the four of them appear. Naruto turns around for a moment to find the Tailed Beasts standing sentinel behind him, and he grins at the image they are making right now.

The stage is set.

Naruto begins to walk forward – stumble, really, but he shakes off Kakashi's attempt to help. People are getting to their feet, but nobody walks forward. The prophet himself must go to the mountain.

Naruto can already feel the beasts' chakra flowing into him, strengthening him, rejuvenating him. He feels yin-Kurama stir within him, but is too intent on playing this out to perfection.

He crosses the no man's land in that slow shuffle, but nobody calls him out on it. He almost laughs aloud at the thought of somebody daring to do that. His hand is tingling, but there are some wounds even Tailed Beasts cannot heal. Nevertheless, his gait straitens and new purpose flows into their limbs, as the nine respectfully heal him up with their own strength.

It is too much strength for a mere human to carry. At that moment, Naruto is closer to divinity than Pein could ever dream of.

He comes to a stop before the five Kages, still leading their people from the front. Five pairs of eyes shift to his arm and then to Sasuke to reach the obvious conclusion, but a small grin from him makes them stand down. For now.

He turns to Tsunade, making sure that she really is all right. Her eyes are soft and kind, and for a second he can forget the illusion she's placed on herself and appreciate exactly what Jiraiya saw in her.

"Grandma," to her credit, she doesn't even twitch at his whisper. "Do you trust me?"

She looks worried. "Brat," she asks through clenched teeth. "What the hell sort of question is that?" Naruto is suddenly aware that the other four Kage are not even attempting to hide that they're eavesdropping shamelessly. He leans in and speaks his request into Tsunade's ear.

She fixes him with a hard look when they separate, her eyes boring into him with an intensity that is almost burning. He has never loved her more at that instant, because he knows that she's already agreed. She's waited too damn long for this anyway.

Slowly, deliberately, she takes the conical hat off her shoulder. The quartet around her tense, and Naruto can now feel every eye of the Shinobi Alliance on him.

He closes his eyes in sweet success when Tsunade places it on his head, and it fits there like he was born into it.

A moment's silence – he waits for it to sink in – and then a tsunami of sound rushes over the field. Shinobi everywhere are clapping and cheering and banging their fists and yelling themselves hoarse, and damn if he isn't wearing a shit eating grin because this is his _life_ being validated right here. Tsunade says nothing – she only smirks when she bows to him, no doubt thinking about the long vacation she's going to take after this.

_Not so fast, old hag._

For five minutes, Naruto lets the exultant roars and cheers wash over him. His peers and his team have caught up with him – Sasuke even woke up just for him – but they stay at arm's length, content to let him have his moment in the sun.

He raises his hand. Silence falls across the grounds as the sun rises into the sky in earnest and shows the world that it's going to be a beautiful new day.

"Shinobi of the Allied Forces," he needs no preparation, no pause to think. There is no pausing in the final movement of an act. "I am the Rokudaime Hokage of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto." The applause breaks upon him like a tidal wave again, and damn, old man Hokage, aren't they all acknowledging him right now?

He cuts them off sooner this time, though he takes great pleasure at seeing Sasuke twitch his arms before realizing he's missing one essential component to grudgingly applaud his rival.

His chakra reserves are complete. He can feel the power of the nine Bijuu flowing through him, mixing together to make something far more potent and archaic. It was a shame that Madara and Kaguya never realized that the final, missing component to their strength was the chakra of a human being. That was what the wrinkly old Sage had intended all along. Acceptance between his children.

"Many years ago, my village was attacked by the great demon Kyuubi," Kurama snorts behind them, but Naruto has his number now, the big softy. "The Yondaime Hokage sealed him away to protect his village, saving thousands of lives in one night."

He takes deliberate steps back, his teammates parting to make way. The Konoha 11 – or 9, really – aren't smiling, and neither are Kakashi or Tsunade or Gai or his fellow beloved nins. Realization is welling up inside them, and Naruto can already see it sparking in the eyes of his friends.

His chakra reserves are complete. He can feel the power of the nine Bijuu flowing through him, mixing together to make something far more potent and archaic. It was a shame that Madara and Kaguya never realized that the final, missing component to their strength was the chakra of a human being. That was what the wrinkly old Sage had intended all along. Acceptance between his children.

"Well I say…I can do better." His friends are moving as soon as he finishes, but he's already done. There are no handseals. There is no proper way to mould chakra or to transform it. There is only Yin and Yang, light and dark, creating and ending. There is only chaos in between. He knows the exact number, having felt every light go out with his special chakras. Villages afar, or forty thousand six hundred and fifty-three shinobi, it doesn't matter.

He feels the chakra of the Sage rush through him, propelling him into the sky. His loved ones are pleading and screaming and cursing up at him, but his eye catches somebody in particular.

He gets a sudden vision of two beautiful kids and slender arms around him, but that future is not for him. He can only mouth that he is being selfish in that moment.

The jutsu is complete. The Bijuu are silent, but he can feel their final, pervading respect for him.

His life force is fading away; Naruto refuses to do the same. He has never been one to die quietly.

"MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO, AND I'M THE GREATEST NINJA WHO EVER LIVED, DATTEBAYO!"

An answering roar greets him, but it's broken by shrieks and yells when they realize that the deceased in their tents or by their sides are twitching and stirring.

And in that last second, he is at one with the universe. He has transcended. He has attained Nirvana. In that last brief space of time, he reaches out and melds the remnants of his chakra with everybody's.

Peace was never going to be omnipresent or enduring. Human nature itself was every changing and capricious, and so were military institutions or treaties or allied armies. An idea, on the other hand…

People over the world are treated to a joining of their life forces for one, fleeting second. Naruto thinks it is enough. Peace was never his to deal out.

He closes his eyes. There is no pain. He has not failed his precious people…in the end, it is a happy ending.

. . .

There was once a boy, who dreamed of climbing mountains and reaching for the stars. When he finally landed on one and made it his own, he realized that he'd left the world behind.

_**Finis**_

**Author's note: There is a tiny epilogue for this, but the tone of it is completely opposite. If you liked/tolerated it, end here. If you're curious, you may continue. The epilogue is actually more in the vein of Kishimoto's Naruto world. Cheers!**

**Please just leave seperate thoughts on how you felt about them and make this poor fellow's day!**


	2. Chapter 2

But when is it really over for the hero?

Naruto awoke slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the light before cracking them open. And then he can't stop smiling, because standing not ten feet away are every person he's ever loved or grown to respect.

Jiraiya, smirking at him and rubbing his chin. Old man Sarutobi, smiling at him proudly with his son. Obito, who's frowning a bit, but is still happy to see him. Nagato and Konan, who relieve him by not pulling any weapons on him in retribution. Itachi, giving him a stoic nod of approval. And of course, there are the two people he's looking for more than anybody else.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, standing together and smiling at him with proud grins. His heart fills up like a balloon, and he knows that he's finally, finally at the end.

And then Kushina ruins it by very succintly saying. "You're fucked."

Naruto can almost hear somebody take a pin to his poor heart. It doesn't help that everybody's smirking like they know something he doesn't, and something is going to hurt very, very much.

"What your mother means to say," his father speaks up, his voice ringing with supressed laughter, "is that she loves you very much, and you're forgetting that Chiyo of Suna had a brother who agreed to fight in the Great War."

Naruto's normally dense mind makes the connection in seconds.

He blinks and then opens his eyes to look up at the demonically furious faces of both Sakura and _Hinata_. And then his eyes trail down to see fists wreathed in blue and green.

Naruto screws up his second attempt at famous last words.

"I'm fucked."


End file.
